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December 9, 2013

Review: Magg-Birth/Revival

This
band is very definitely a mystery, as even with the huge power of the
internet at my fingertips, and having trawled through this site and that
site, I have only accumulated some sparse information about the band
Magg, with the bands own website still under construction at the current
time. Magg is a Mexican progressive rock band from Cancun, and recently
released their debut album, a double, Birth-Revival, upon the musical world.

Magg is composed of 5 members, who are either very shy or wish to continue to exude the air of mystery at the moment, as theysimply
go by their first names. Ivan (bass), Sergio (drums), Yito (guitar),
Luis (keyboards) and Alfred (vocals) form the band, and I was even
unable to find the date of the origin of the band.

Birth-Revival is a double album containing a total of 13 tracks, 8 on Birth and 5 on Revival, with a total playing time of around 93 minutes. The longest track, “Chinese Room,” is the opening track to disc 2, Revival, and runs on to stop the clock at 14:05 minutes, with track 7 from disc 1, Birth, the shortest at 2:43 minutes.

I
have always been a firm believer in the importance of the opening track
which has to immediately engage the listener and ensure that the
listener then wants to hear all that follows. ”Mind’s Conflict” (5:33)
on the Birth disc, has that burden placed on its shoulders. The
track opens with a wall of noise and the listener is catapulted
immediately into the musical cauldron that is Magg. Visions of Hawkwind
and Deep Purple float through my mind as the track continues to unfold.
Heavy riffing guitar, thunderous bass, almost imperceptible keyboards,
drumming that edges perilously close to being metronomic, which regular
readers will be aware, I am not particularly partial to, and vocals to
match the band’s power. While allowing the guitarist to lay out his
wares, the track doesn’t show that vital factor that should grab the
listener. Once the track is complete, it doesn’t leave a particularly
memorable riff in the head of the listener.

The
first hint that Magg have a little more in their musical armory than
just “heavy” prog, shows briefly on track 3, “Golgotha” (6:57) with
soaring guitar, almost melancholy styled keyboards and a vocal that
shows a very good range.

“Silly
Wisdom” (8:05), “Beyond” (5:21), “Destroy The Darkness” (5:11) and “Red
King” (2:43) all have the “lets squeeze as many notes as we can into as
small a space as possible” scenario, which leaves this listener
wondering which of these tracks was which. The closing track of disc 1,
“Rain” (8:45) continues in this style, but there is a section where the
blistering tempo drops, the passages are more relaxed and less frenetic,
and the track has a little more chance of embedding itself into the
listener’s mind.

The
opening track on the second disc, “Chinese Room” (14:05), is certainly a
very interesting track which goes through a variety of passages from
the “heavy” prog to the more relaxed style and seems to work all the
better for that. “Vineyard” (7:11) has an instantly memorable keyboard
riff which marks it out as different and it is a standout track. This
style then all changes with “The Flying Circus” (7:28) which
returns to the machine gun guitar sounds and soaring keyboards, but is
definitely into the more wall of sound area. The last track, “The
Ladder” (10:55), is again one that tends to show the same style that has
permeated through disc 1.

The
musicianship is very good, but I think that there is a very good single
album on display, although it is well hidden in the melee of tracks
across the double album. Birth-Revival
is an ambitious release as a debut album, and while there are good
sections, I feel that it required a firmer vetting process to be more
successful. As I always like to mention at this time, this is a very
personal view and I would urge people to give Birth-Revival by Magg, a few listens, and it may well be exactly what you want to hear.